Video of the week: A muchos años.

Here’s this video of la Sonora Santanera, the biggest group to come out of México to play tropical music (the only person who ever rivaled them was Pérez Prado). La Sonora Santanera became big in the 1960s with hits like “La boa,” “Luces de Nueva York,” “Perfume de Gardenias,” and “La cumbia del torero.” This song is titled “A muchos años” and it was performed in 1988 during a TV show hosted by Veronica Castro.

This performance came two years after the death of the founder and leader of the group, Carlos Colorado, in an accident. La Sonora Santanera was on its way to Aguascalientes, México, for the annual Fería de San Marcos and the tour bus crashed, killing Colorado. He’s honored by the singers raising their right hand whenever the word colorado is said and his face is shown at the end of the show. Even two years after his death, la Sonora Santanera continued performing as a group. Sadly, a few years later the group would splinter because of issues and now there are many issues with the ownership of the name, leading to a number of Sonora Santaneras, none as good as la original Sonora Santanera.

This next video I stumbled across while searching for videos. I’m guessing they’re Turkish (based on one comment) and they mime the song “El mudo” by la Sonora Santanera. It’s great to know that Mexican music is heard and loved by people in other continents.